New to Apple - Extremely disappointed

[traylorc]

Sensitive? LOL! You almost sound surprised by the reactions of people on an iPhone forum. You can't just post up a rant and not expect us to offer some advice or help.

I was thinking the exact same thing.....

 

[blane64]

Some of those reasons, like the LED light and the silenced options, those are reaching. An LED light is for business use? The iPhone uses tags and stuff like that to tell you when you have mail.

And that little knob on the side mutes the phone. You realize that right?

And preventing users from using their phone is not a very good answer either. Just don't give someone the password to install apps, or only let them install free ones. Just because someone who has a business iPhone downloads Facebook doesn't mean that viruses are going to get into the corporate mainframe.

I hesitate to comment, for fear that someone will think I am "stirring the pot", or "didn't do my homework" etc..

I came over from a BB, and almost went back after 2 weeks. I am doing better now, but it has been hard. The LED light is very useful, business or non-business. In order for me to see if I have a email message, I have to click swipe and push. The LED tells you if you have a message. And a quick glance at a BB screen tells you how many messages you have. Very useful.

The ability on the BB to set user profiles is also excellent. I could actually make the BB vibrate once for text, twice for mail, or if it buzzed more than that, I knew it was an incoming call. Or I could make it buzz only for SMS (something I want to deal with now) and not buzz at all for email (something I was willing to read later). But then, magically, if the BB was out of the clip or holster (like on the counter charging at home) it would ring or ding for a call, etc.

Also, the ability to have a unified Inbox on the BB is nice. One place to put all of your messages, mail or text. Now, I have to stir my way between multiple screens to check 2 email accounts and the SMS messages.

Now, before you get angry, I voted with my fingers, and own an iPhone, so I must not miss those enough to go back....actually my kids would cry if I went back to the BB...

And yes, some of us need an Exchange account for work, and an Exchange account for other things too.

I am learning to like my iPhone, at first I really didn't like it much....it is growing on me...

 

[ctt1wbw]

The mail icon tells you how many emails you have, too. It has a badge that displays that number.

 

[chobbs1]

I agree with the checking seperate email accounts. It is kinda a pain to have to swipe sooooo many times to check my three email accounts. One of which is an exchange account from work.

 

[ctt1wbw]

That is THE one thing that I don't like about the iPhone, is it's email program. I wish there was a "top level" button or something to get you back to the main screen to see you accounts.

 

[flyingember]

iphone- 2 years old
Palm- 17 years old
Blackberry- 10 years old.

I agree there are limitations to the platform that HAVE to be changed but people who expect EVERY feature they've come to like to be available on a competiting platform with such a historical difference didn't do their homework.

Blackberry- PIM + phone
Apple- media device + partial PIM + phone + convergence device
(old) Palm - PIM + phone
(new) Palm- PIM + phone + partial media

no one does every aspect well. Apple couldn't compete in just the PIM market and that they need lots of improvement in that area should not be a surprise.

 

[lonbeehold]

I know. That process you listed takes me about 3 seconds. I know that's valuable time.

I miss the BB blinking light alert. I could tell if I had an email without touching the thing to check. It's not the time; it's the fact that I have to handle the phone to know if I have an email, vm, text, missed call. The BB could be sitting on my desk- if the red light blinked, I knew I had a message. If I'm in the middle of a meeting or a hearing (I'm a lawyer) I don't want to have to keep picking up and opening my device to see if I have messages, but with my iPhone I have to do just that. Don't get me wrong-I love my iPhone and I'm never going back. But I do miss this BB feature.

 

[lonbeehold]

Yeah, it works. You realize the iPhone does multitasking, right?

I would love to be able to run Pandora or Sirius while checking mail, answering texts, surfing the web; still can't do that :/

 

[lonbeehold]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but on my iPhone I can only sync (with IMAP) up to 200 of the most recent emails (under settings). Let's say you have an mailbox of about 700MB with thousands emails stretching back 5 years. Now try to search for an email (using keyword search) that was sent/received in say 2007. When I try to do that in Spotlight it comes up blank. It only indexes the 200 emails that are synced locally on my device. With the Blackberry it will perform a search search on the server and search all those thousands of emails.

I can finally do a full mail search with the new Comcast app. I have several thousand emails in my Comcast-I can now pull up any one of them in seconds. It even searches the body of the emails which spotlight does not.

 

[taylorh]

I use Gmail IMAP. I'm able to go in to the "All Mail" folder, then go to the top and run a search on all mail. Just below it is an option to "Continue search on the Server... 16,018 more messages on the server."
Run a search and I get a result from every email ever sent to this account no matter when.
Searching on the server though the mail app is a new feature on the iPhone. It works on exchange and GMail, and I assumed that since GMail was IMAP it would work on any IMAP server. No? Is this exclusively a GMail, Exchange, and MobileMe thing?

 

[taylorh]

I would love to be able to run Pandora or Sirius while checking mail, answering texts, surfing the web; still can't do that :/

There are exactly 3 things that still aren't available on the iPhone that, if supported, would make me totally satisfied. And this is at the top of my list.

1) Able to run at least ONE app in the background such a streaming Pandora.
2) Lock my iPHone to 3G so it's on 3G or nothing. No fall back to GSM. I get sick of having to switch it to airplane mode and back just to get it back on 3G when it falls back for no reason.
3) Tethering.

#1 - I hope Apple comes to their senses and finds a way to offer some limited background app support, like one 3rd party app at a time. That's all I ask. Maybe I have to wait 'til 4.0 for that (if ever.)
It's the thing I miss most from my Windows Mobile days.
#2 - Probably will never happen. Might have to break down and jailbreak again to get this (just learned how.)
#3 - Like MMS, it's now supported if AT&T will just offer it.

 

[i_nut]

I agree w most here who came from a BB. The iphone isn't perfect...yet. Pretty darn good though, imo. I won't go into the already mentioned. One thing I will say is I enjoy the thought of playful apps on my future device! I might be all grown up but I still enjoy a good game or two w my kids! Fun is GOOD. I found the BB to be a very serious device. It's a very good business phone but had little to offer in the "fun" department for me. Iphone seems to have a good balance that I think I'll like. That's my take.

 

[icebike]

• No week view
• No Agenda view showing you all your day's appointments and tasks
• Month view has no color coding/icons
• Day view doesn't compress unbooked time, have to scroll up/down
• Weak repeating event support e.g. Last friday of the month
• No floating events
• No categories e.g. work, personal, school
• Takes about 8 clicks (not counting typing) to add a new event vs 1 click in PalmOS
• Date picker makes it difficult to pinpoint particular days e.g. The last Saturday in July. A traditional month drop-down would be better

.

• No week view. True. But List view comes close.
• No Agenda View: Day view does the same.
• Month View no color: The color is in the list below, broken out by calendar.
• Day View Unccompressed: True. Not a big deal if you ask me.
• Weak Repeating: Major True. Really a pain.
• Floating events: Major True. Although I seldom use such things.
• No Categories: Not true. Add another Calendar. Select calendar as you enter events.
• 8Clicks: How can you possibly add an event with one click?
• Date Picker: True, its slow. But you are doing it backward. First move to the date using calendar controls, THEN add the event.

Its not perfect, but if you Sync with Google Calendars one makes up for the weakness of the other.

 

[icebike]

2) Lock my iPHone to 3G so it's on 3G or nothing. No fall back to GSM. I get sick of having to switch it to airplane mode and back just to get it back on 3G when it falls back for no reason.

You're kidding right? You'd rather be incommunicado, no phone calls, no IMs, No Push Notifications, than accept slower service?

I submit you don't want a phone.

You want an iPod Touch.

 

[icebike]

I agree with the checking seperate email accounts. It is kinda a pain to have to swipe sooooo many times to check my three email accounts. One of which is an exchange account from work.

This is really true.

I wish there was an option in Mail to always have it open in the Accounts screen where you get a summary of each account. This would be great for users with multiple accounts. (Who doesn't have more than one these days?)

I also wish you could tell the Mail App which Imap subdirectories to check (and notify) for new mail. If you use Imap (or google mail) you can have server side filtering into subfolders, but unless you check these folders you won't see new mail counts for subfolders..

 

[lonbeehold]

I agree w most here who came from a BB. The iphone isn't perfect...yet. Pretty darn good though, imo. I won't go into the already mentioned. One thing I will say is I enjoy the thought of playful apps on my future device! I might be all grown up but I still enjoy a good game or two w my kids! Fun is GOOD. I found the BB to be a very serious device. It's a very good business phone but had little to offer in the "fun" department for me. Iphone seems to have a good balance that I think I'll like. That's my take.

I liken the BB to a solid, dependable, but somewhat dull boyfriend. The iPhone is the hot guy you keep coming back to even when he lets you down (as in my battery dying today at 5pm after coming off a full charge at 9 this morning). I'll take fun and hot...there's always the car charger

 

[minimo3]

• 8Clicks: How can you possibly add an event with one click?

Its not perfect, but if you Sync with Google Calendars one makes up for the weakness of the other.

Adding an event in PalmOS:
Click in time slot (1-click). Then type in the event. No need to click Save or done or anything.

You're right, an external calendar is necessary to make up for the built-in calendar. Previously on the Palm I used to input all my events on the device. I'd also make any changes on the device. With the iPhone I tend to avoid using the built in calendar except for looking up information. All my data entry and event management is done on the PC through Google Calendar. Google Sync has been a bit flaky recently too so I've had to resort to using the Safari version of the calendar.

 

[chobbs1]

there is one thing in the calender app. on the phone that I do like. it's in the starts and ends tab. when you select a start day and an end day that is different, the app automatically fills in all the days in between with the event. say spring break starts on the march 29th and ends on April 2nd. the app. will automatically fill the days in-between with "spring break" I do like that.

 

[Frenzytom#CB]

lonbeehold said: I would love to be able to run Pandora or Sirius while checking mail, answering texts, surfing the web; still can't do that :/

So funny that those were the exact things I was doing today on bus ride to work. I was streaming Pandora, checking my email and send and receiving my text messages while my home page was loading in the background. That is what you call multitasking. I hope Apple can do that in the future.

 

[PastorGadget]

Aren't there like a hundre cal apps that could do what you are asking? I am asking not saying. I haven't looked because I can live without most of what you are mission from the Palm. I miss a little of it, but Google is my primary cal app and then I sync to iPhone.